THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it is poised to deport a South Korean fugitive wanted by authorities in his country for involvement in telecommunications fraud.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, the bureau’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) identified the fugitive as 48-year-old Song Chaehyok, who was arrested on Thursday inside a luxury condominium suite in Taguig City.

The arresting agents were armed with a warrant of deportation from Morente, who issued the same according to a summary deportation order that the BI Board of Commissioners issued against the said Korean in 2018 for being an undesirable alien.

It was also learned that as a result of the deportation order, Song was placed on the Immigration’s blacklist, which perpetually bans him from re-entering the Philippines.

According to BI-FSU Acting Chief Rendel Ryan Sy, Song is the subject of an Interpol red notice that the Interpol issued in 2018 after being charged with fraud before a district court in Jeonju, South Korea.

Sy said a warrant of arrest was also issued against Song by the said court, where he is accused of being a member of a syndicate that engages in voice phishing to defraud its victims.

Information obtained from the Interpol’s National Central Bureau (NCB) in Manila disclosed that from 2015 to 2016, Song and his cohorts operated their scheme, making “random calls” to their victims in Korea.

The victims were allegedly enticed to remit their money to the syndicate’s bank accounts as the phone callers pretended that they were bank officers soliciting investments from the public.

It is estimated that the syndicate’s earnings from the racket amounted to 5.8 billion Korean won, or roughly more than US$4.6 million.

Song is currently detained at the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, pending deportation.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Jun I. Legaspi